Unabomber asked man awaiting trial to stop writing

PLANO, Texas (AP) — A man charged with trying to blow up a North Texas natural gas pipeline corresponded with imprisoned Unabomber Ted Kaczynski until Kaczynski told him to stop writing.

Anson Chi wrote several letters to Kaczynski, who is serving life in prison for killing three people and injuring 23 during a nationwide bombing spree between 1978 and 1995.

According to letters reviewed by The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1nWlqqx ), Chi contacted Kaczynski for feedback on a website he was creating and told Kaczynski that he admired him. A judge has excluded the letters from being used as evidence at Chi's trial, which is expected to start this week.

"You're a true inspiration to me and I vow not to let the sacrifices that you've made go to waste," Chi said in one of the letters, dated July 26, 2011.

Chi was arrested in 2012 in Plano, northeast of Dallas, near a small explosion by a natural-gas pipeline. The blast caused minimal damage but critically injured Chi. Police traced a line of blood to Chi.

The University of Michigan has a public collection of many letters received by Kaczynski, a Michigan alumnus. In one letter, Chi tells Kaczynski that he wants to create a website for others who share their anti-technology beliefs.

"What the hell do you think I've been trying to do for the last fifteen years!!!!?" Kaczynski wrote back in a letter dated Oct. 5, 2011.

The two exchanged designs for a website, but their relationship eventually soured. Kaczynski called Chi irrational and told him to see a psychiatrist.

"Anyone who does anything as stupid as sending material of that kind to an inmate of a high-security prison has to be mentally ill," Kaczynski said in a May 2012 letter. "I will have nothing further to do with you under any circumstances whatever."

After initially saying he would plead guilty, Chi withdrew his plea and fired his lawyers. He has filed several handwritten motions from jail, where he has been awaiting trial. Jury selection began Monday.

U.S. District Judge Richard Schell said in an order Friday that the letters' value as evidence was outweighed by the risk that they would mislead the jury or cause other problems.